Black+White Photography - UK (2019-12)

40
B+W

that we have effectively been trying to say.

Over the years, I have been increasingly

drawn to landscape as a metaphor for

what I want to say about other things but,

indirectly, in a more oblique conceptual

way. This is a photography that is

characterised by a desire to explore a

single, often banal idea from many different

angles, rejecting the notion of the singular

photographic moment in favour of a series

of photographs that make clear the central

idea being communicated.

Martin Parr, as a major advocate of

conceptual documentary, argues that it

can be viewed as a reaction against the

more emotive and humanistic forms of

documentary which dominated the 20th

century, and is more acceptable to a ‘cynical

contemporary audience’. Melissa Miles

refers to the ‘cool distanced aesthetic’ where

there is no longer any need for a lengthy

explanatory text, as the need to tell ‘the

truth’ is of less significance.

L

iz Wells points out that there is a

tendency for women ‘to focus on the

inter-relation of people and place

rather than, for instance, on land as

vista, more or less devoid of indicators of

human habitation.’ She believes that this

gendered notion is the legacy of women’s

historical relation to land, having been

mediated through her relation to men,

namely father and husband, and also

from being defined as: ‘closer to nature

(where nature is something untamed

and therefore essentially female) “land”

with its connotations of property rights,

accumulation and control is seen as male.’

Trying to avoid these essentialist

stereotypes I prefer to focus on landscape

brought about by human action rather than

examine the binary of nature and land, as this

COMMENT

Going beyond simply taking photographs to asking ourselves what it is we want

to convey with them, and what we think the viewer will understand from them,

is something many of us are faced with. Vicki Painting investigates.

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

@vickipaintingphoto

This large cactus is propped and tied to a stake, evoking a number of readings,

overwhelmingly anthropomorphic, it appears human-like in need of support.

F

inding our photographic voice

is often the expression used in

preference to vision. It somehow

suggests that our voice is buried

within us and is waiting to

emerge; our voice has to be

spoken, we may shout loudly or employ

hushed tones. Our voice is what we want

to say in our photographic practice. Once

discovered, it is assumed that others will

recognise our voice as being unique to us.

Are we even conscious of it ourselves? We

may know what we are drawn to but not

fully understand why – the act of taking the

pictures is often enough. It is when we put

them together that we begin to see what it is

‘COOL DISTANCED

AESTHETIC’ WHERE

THERE IS NO LONGER

ANY NEED FOR A

LENGTHY EXPLANATORY

TEXT, AS THE NEED TO

TELL ‘THE TRUTH’ IS OF

LESS SIGNIFICANCE.’